


Encroaching Darkness

by GL_Rein



Category: freeform - Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dark, Darkness, Fantasy, Good and Evil, Heroes to Villains, Other, Science Fiction, Superpowers, bestie, darkness and light, light - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-21 10:01:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18140753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GL_Rein/pseuds/GL_Rein
Summary: A new paradigm on humanity's battle between light and darkness. Join Alex Delacroix in a modern society adapting to the discovery and exposure of people wielding immense power and how society reacts to them





	1. Chapter 1

# The Café News

       The camera pans around the morning news room as a woman recounts her story of the night prior. She is visibly disheveled, but understandably so, considering she is still terrified and hasn't slept since the incident. The host is doing his best to encourage her to tell her story. He tries to be sympathetic, but his focus is on the story and she's rambling about her cats being empathetic.

  
      The host interjected, "Thank you miss, but can we jump baaaack to the part where you first saw him?"

  
      The girl takes a deep yet shaky breath, "Yes. I heard a dry laugh that gripped my spine, and when I looked towards it, there he was: a man stepping out of the shadows and the shadows stepped out with him."

  
      The host nodded, "That sounds horrific, especially knowing his reputation." He gestured to a screen projecting a large missing persons list.

  
       "Yeah.....there's gonna be a new one added up there soon. While I was standing there frozen, tendrils seized a man, he flung him down the alley. I......I took the chance to bolt into a lighted area. Run and leave that nightmare behind....there was nothing I could've done...." she trailed off.

  
        The host, satisfied she did her part, "Ms. Green, I have no doubt you dodged a bullet there. The CANDOR forces searching those alleys and have yet to find a body. Friends at home, please check on your loved ones and report any missing persons as a potential victim of this darkness."


	2. The Café

# The Café

      I turned to Keira and joked, "Thank goodness my loved one is here, bless her heart"

      She looked at me confused, then rolled her eyes and laughed, "Faiiiiiirly certain I don't fit the description here Ax" I took a moment trying to think of something clever and she slugged me in the arm "oh so you actually have to consider that?! I'm not even remotely masculine!"

      Smiling awry I said, "Well, you *are* like a brother to me". At that she turned her head to hide her fuming, a peek back at me caught a playful wink that snapped her outta it.

      I sighed, habitual charmer be damned, I shouldn't be making jokes better suited for testing waters than messing with my bestie. As we ate in the café and the news droned on, I reminisced of how much of a fluke this friendship was. Since youth i was always distant from the other kids. A bit of a rough past left me with a "survive or die" analytic and calculating mentality. Kinda gives a kid an unsettling vibe. That and my black hair and almost black eyes under fluorescent lights of the classrooms probably made me look like a vampire or something, i was mostly a background guy until TV started romanticizing teenage serial killers. Then i was okayish......except for poorly lit bars and clubs.....i seemed to be particularly warm and charming then. Which tends to lead to more serial killer jokes.

     So it was a bit of a surprise when first day of college, Keira sat next to me and struck up a conversation. A bit of a rare occurrence, I jokingly demanded to know who sent her. She laughed it off and insisted i caught her eye because how little I stood out. She learned i was a lot less sinister than i looked, she proved to be as beautiful inside as she was on the surface. Our friendship caught on like a wild fire. Now we are college seniors and still inseparable.

     Bringing myself back to the present I tell her, "Joking aside Keira, pleaaaase stay outta the alleyways after dark"   

     "Of course, but the same goes for you", she countered.

     I laughed,"Naturally, why on earth would I? I wonder what they were even doing down there in alleyways that late."

    Keira looked perplexed for a moment, and then suspicious. "So you haaaavent been trying to observe this particular Anomaly?"

     "Hell no. However true that fortune favors the bold, fate always foils the foolish", I laughed.

     Keira nodded in agreement and looked relieved, but still curious, "Well, you do tend to be quite insightful during Anomaly research discussions, and I KNOW you aren't above doing something risky to make progress."

      I shook my head and laughed, "No, Keira. I just have an unconventional way of looking at them. Believe it or not, an Anomaly is still bound by physics, regardless of them bending shadows, conjuring flames or projecting plasma beams. And increasingly less believable for some groups; they are *still* people which makes them for an endlessly fascinating psychology *and* physics study."

     Keira nodded and looked a bit smug as she said, "See, it's saying things like that which makes me worry about you. You wouldn't try to stalk this suspect, you'd flat out walk up and try to chat"

     I laughed "now that would probably get me farther than stalking him. Imagine it. Actually knowing the Umbrakinetic's motive for what he's doing. And everything else I could get out of him!"

       Keira was both alarmed and confused before she shook it off and playfully jabbed, "Or you'd find out first hand where these missing persons are. Now, what on earth is Umbrakinetic?"

     After a good laugh at that I explained, "Its control over darkness. I figured it was more accurate than most the names they use for him."

     Keira agreed, "Well....regardless, he's the only publicly known Abnormal that hasn't been thoroughly studied by the Transcendence program. Suuuure you don't have any of these bad ideas that just might work for this one? You typically have deeper sleeves than a magician when it comes to those".

     I stifled a chuckle as i thought to myself. This gal knows me too well, I do love a clever challenge. But I wasn't too enthused to bring her out chasing the dark. So, I offered her an alternative.


	3. The Lead

    Outside of college classes and research with their Transcendence program who had the mission statement "to shed light on the nature of Anomaly" I would do my own homework reaching out to potential Anomalies online. After Maxwell Candor, Founder of Candor corporation revealed that he himself was an Anomaly, there was a surge of other Anomalies tentatively "coming out" but between the mass populace's fear of the unknown and personal risks, most decided to remain anonymous. After all, not every Anomaly has the glorious power of light and benevolent figure of Candor corporation like Maxwell Candor did. So, while Maxwell paraded about as a superhero by day and CEO at night, most Anomalies continued about their lives as usual, but still sought to know other Anomalies like them. So they'd use social media forums that allowed them to maintain their anonymity. Unfortunately, most the forums are occupied by fakes with delusions of grandeur, or sharks trying to find Anomalies for various and potentially nefarious reasons, like government agents searching for powerful Anomalies or various people who wanna harm them. (Particularly religious fanatics, ever since exposure, several cults popped up both ones worshiping Anomalies, and ones that consider them an unholy abomination)

     I suppose I would fall under the category of "sharks" but unlike "sharks", I'm honest and forthcoming with my motives, only trying to learn rather than pry or approach them. The fakes tend to avoid me because it doesn't take much asking about the nature of their "powers" to expose how paper thin they are. After a while many Anomalies noticed that talking with me and hearing my hypotheses and theories of physics and psychology of their powers gives them very beneficial insight and better understanding of themselves, which is a huge relief when you can levitate or spontaneously combust.

     Eventually a group approached me telling me they were interested in meeting me seeing if they can trust me and if they could, we're willing to welcome me and let my research shed better light on their community. After Keira admitted being interested in taking a more active approach to the research, I worked with them to arrange a meeting. We came to agreement that we'd go to a random pool hall. If either party got a bad vibe, they would bounce without making contact, if we were comfortable, we would message each other our description and make contact. Minimal risk right?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still fairly new to both writing as well as AO3, so any criticism is encouraged, and any advice is always welcome from any level. From tips on writing format and methods, to help getting my story out there. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for updates.


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